Sure, we’ve seen some epic pauses from webcomics before, but one that goes on for roughly eleven years so that the cartoonist can go to med school and finish a residency? That’s gotta be a first.

I speak, naturally, of Kidnapped By Gnomes, which started somewhere in the first half of 2007, hit 100 strips that October, stuck around until 2009, eked out a few more strips over the next year, and finally just … went away.

Until a sudden realization on the part of Ed (the blue one) and Wilson (the purple fuzzy one) that a lot has happened and maybe they need to get back to it. So KBG’s two most recent strips dropped this morning, with a Tuesday-Thursday schedule starting next week. Creator Kathy Peterson — Doctor Peterson if you’re nasty — dropped me the press release as well as a personal email, noting that I gave her some promotion back at the first launch, and noting that there are some actual storylines in the hopper come the Fall.

We at Fleen welcome Peterson, Wilson, and Ed back to the weird world of webcomics, and hope to see what a doctor’s perspective brings to the laugh-chuckles.

Oh, and in case you were wondering why I used the image up above instead of anything from KBG, it’s because Now That’s What I Call Music vol 31 inspired one of the most cutting turns of phrase — and a terrific running gag — that’s stuck with me for nearly a decade. In his comprehensive review of NTWICM (or at least the 38 volumes that were available by the time he’d caught up to the end; there’s hundreds of them now), Nathan Rabin at The AV Club had a special dislike for the Black Eyed Peas, which came to the fore in his review of NTWICMv31:

At this point in the series I think we can all agree that the Black Eyed Peas are essentially a four-person advertising agency flimsily masquerading as a pop group. Think of them as the distinguished firm of Hologram Man, Meth Lady, The Other Guy, and The Other Other Guy, Inc.

Chairman and CEO Will.I.Am understands the secret power of irritation better than anyone this side of Ke$ha or Katy Perry. I suspect he just wanders around wherever the hell he lives (for some reason I see him living in a penthouse suite at the Trump Tower in Las Vegas and having a walk-in closet full of nothing but fur boots) with a Casio keyboard, randomly hitting various notes until whoever he’s with can’t take it anymore and finally blurts out, “Jesus fucking Christ! That is so fucking annoying! Can you cut that out? That has to be the most obnoxious noise I’ve ever heard.”

That’s when Will.I.Am knows he has a hit. After discerning the most irritating possible melody imaginable, Will.I.Am then moves on to the next step in the songwriting process. He heads down to the lyrics lab of Hologram Man, Meth Lady, The Other Guy, and The Other Other Guy, Inc., where scientists with clipboards monitor crazy homeless men around the clock and write down their most annoying patter. Once the most irritating possible melody is married to the most obnoxious conceivable lyric, the song is given to Fergie and the horrible-ification process is complete.

Some day, I hope to write something that enduring, and I wanted to share its glory with all of you.

Spam of the day:

This is bigger and more dangerous than we are being told And it’s headed to YOUR neighborhood…

This is a scarespam meant to engender panic about the novel coronavirus, when so much of its impact could be blunted by wearing a damn mask and avoiding crowded, indoor spaces. Know who agrees with me? Kathy Peterson, an actual doctor!